This is the semi-official blog for the Northwest/Forest Park Home Community of Imago Dei Community Church in Portland Oregon.
We meet every Tuesday from 7 - 9 PM.
Please note that, while we're all intelligent, witty and wonderful people, what we write here does not necessarily represent the views of our church as a whole.

Friday, February 8, 2008

The fun is in the faith

When I look back at Friday, February 8th, 2008, I'll try to overlook the part about missing a great journaling opportunity (I love writing cursive capital F's) and instead focus on how I dialed it back to college Mike and took a FOUR HOUR nap. True story.

Now why, you may ask, why is a 30 year old man taking a four hour nap? Here's my answer for you: because I lacked faith.

Headed to bed on Thursday night, I felt like God wanted me to not set my alarm for the morning. I know it sounds ridiculous for our almighty, all-knowing God to speak to me on something so trivial as alarm clock settings, but I believe I'm a person who needs to be shown lessons on a micro level.

Anyway, I followed God's instructions and went to bed sans alarm. I woke up in a panic. I'd overslept. I checked the time: 5:31, a solid two hours, 39 minutes before the time for which the alarm would usually be set.

I fell asleep, then repeated my "oh my gosh I overslept" routine at 6:36, and 7:24. I woke up for the final time at 7:58, completely tired despite a rare almost-eight hours sleep. I didn't actually hear anything aloud, but I felt God saying to me "Michael, you have such little faith." Why couldn't I trust He'd wake me up in time? I left the house exhausted, as if I'd just worked an eight hour shift. In a way, I had. My entire sleep cycle was spent in panic. I never trusted the simple likelihood of waking up on time.

This whole ordeal reminded me of a basic truth I've noticed as I continue learning to trust Him: the fun is in the faith. The times when I've gone full speed ahead, completely trusting that He will provide for me -- those are the times I've enjoyed the most. The moments of which I'm ashamed are those where I limit my trust in God, where I don't believe He'll be my alarm clock. Silly Mike. He is the all-knowing, all-powerful God of the universe. I'm pretty sure He can take the place of my $29.99 Sharper Image alarm.